"Blankets" and "Contract with God" (6 points)

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 It is interesting how it was much easier for me to find both Will Eisner's "Contract with God" and Craig Thompson "Blankets" in my country bookstores than Superheroes comics or Peanuts. 

I think my country was first introduced to the world of comics starting with graphic novels and only then later with something else, at least that is I remember it since my childhood. 

Maybe that is why it was much easier to read these two novels then Jack Kirby's comics or comic strips. 

Something about this style feels right to me. It may be the art style, pacing, paneling, or just the fact that the story is told more like a real novel. The pictures read like a novel. 

The art style of both Craig Thompson and Will Eisner is simple yet very beautiful. Even though it is much more cartoony than the superheroes art style, it feels more real. More clear. All emotions are very clear because of the style, all the body poses are very expressive, each drawing with its expressions, pose, and line movements speak to me like words. Sometimes I caught myself just looking at the pictures and not reading the story. My head was already making this story. 

With "Contract with God" it felt a bit different, you very much needed text to understand what is going on, but the feeling that this is a novel and not just a comic-book stayed with me. The format of paneling without borders reminded me of the book with a lot of illustrations. 

The stories itself were simple, yet deep, and again I think it was so much better reading for me. The "Blankets" tells about the life of a young man who came from a very religious family. This is a story about his relationship with his family, about his first love, where every panel in this part was pure feelings.

Same with "Contract with God", it is a series of stories of different people with different hard life situations, and when you read them, you really can feel the pain, the disgust, the pity, and other different feelings. 

And that is what I think the most significant difference between comics books about superheroes or small fun comic strips - feelings. 

After reading the great comic book with great art, I feel that I just had fun. It was exciting, but it was pure entertainment. 

With these two graphic novels and the novel "The Arrival" from the first assignment, I had many feelings and thoughts in the end. Some of the ideas kept me for several days and made me come back to the story sometimes. 

Mostly after "Blanket"s, I wanted so desperately to find out what happened to the main character's lives, I went to look in internet.

Because this story made me care. 

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